CSX to make upstate track improvements, Schumer says

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a critic of CSX Transportation’s safety record upstate, said the railroad’s CEO, during a meeting last Thursday, “personally committed” to investing nearly $46 million in major capital improvements to its track upstate.

Tracks running from the Capital Region will see $17.58 million in improvements.

Schumer unveiled the spending plans by CSX CEO Michael Ward during a conference call with reporters this afternoon.

The spending will occur this year, Schumer said, and will include replacement of old cross ties and deteriorating track, and smoothing the track surface.

CSX also will invest in technologies to analyze track and railcar conditions, detecting everything from overheating wheel bearings to excess movement of rails as trains pass over them. The technology, Schumer said, will enable CSX to reduce unplanned outages throughout its system.

Advanced signal systems aren’t part of the current spending plan, Schumer said in response to a reporter’s question. Amtrak trains are limited in how fast they can travel west of Schenectady in part because of limitations to the current signal system.

Schumer said the 2008 spending level represents a sizable increase in normal capital spending, which he described as being “much, much less.”

Schumer’s meeting with Ward followed several derailments in central New York, including one a year ago that resulted in a massive fire near Oneida, and another last month a short distance from the Oneida accident.